Caroline Cooper
About Caroline
Caroline supports clients in understanding and celebrating their neurodivergent ways of being in the world, in connecting with their purpose and gaining clarity around their strengths and challenges. She works with neurodivergent business leaders, managers, entrepreneurs and creatives who have been ‘diagnosed’ or self-identify as neurodivergent and want to understand how it has impacted them historically, currently and how it can inform their path forward.
Caroline Heard
CPsychol
About Caroline
Caroline has worked as an associate coach for Genius Within since 2013, which is before discovering the extent of neurodivergence in her own family. Funnily enough she was always drawn to the idea of unusual and original minds!
Caroline is a Chartered Psychologist with over 25 years’ experience working in a range of private, public and third sector organisations. Over the years she has coached at all levels and different stages of careers. She also currently lectures on the Industrial and Work Psychology MSc programme at the University of Hertfordshire.
Caroline is passionate about supporting neurodifferences in the workplace and the higher education sector. She uses a strengths-based approach in all her coaching to help clients identify their and achieve their full potential. When she is coaching at her best, she is using active listening to get to the heart of what they want. Caroline thrives on facilitating her clients to see their clear way forward.
Christine Lennon
About Christine
Christine is passionate about people having confidence and a belief in themselves to live the life that they would like. She enjoys helping others to recognise their own strengths and abilities, to have a belief in themselves and to work towards their goals. Having spent so many years working in the voluntary sector she has a special interest in this area.
Christoffer DeGraal
About Christoffer
Christoffer has built his career in helping people from all walks of life discover, understand and implement best practice changes. He is a coach, facilitator and musician with over 20 years experience in both personal development and group coaching, with qualifications in relational dynamics coaching.
Christoffer has experience in banking, professional services, defence, education, NHS and homelessness. Christoffer has lived experience of neurodivergence, managing long covid and supporting those seeking to destigmatise mental health. Christoffer has long been a proponent of the social model of disability, from his days creating art projects as a form of inclusive activism, touring Europe and South America. Christoffer uses creative tools to facilitate coaching conversations, as well as technology.
Christoffer believes we can all work at our best, but it sometimes requires a mind-set shift and strategies that are a close match with how we think. He also believes we need to be able to navigate and discuss the often unspoken limiting rules, behaviours and environment we may face in today’s workplace. When Christoffer is coaching at his best, he is like a terrier, friendly but rigorous about making sure people know what they are doing and why they are doing it, checking and tweaking to make sure that outcomes are making a difference.
Claire Jackson
About Claire
Claire discovered a lot about herself on the journey she took with her neurodivergent son and received her own dyslexia diagnosis later in life. She has learned to truly value and play to her strengths and, as such, is passionate about supporting neurodifferences in the workplace.
Claire values whole-person and strengths-based coaching approaches to help her clients achieve their full potential. She facilitates space for her clients to reflect, discovers new perspectives, develops strategies, builds confidence and create new opportunities. Claire has a calm, empathetic, and reflective coaching style and uses various coaching tools that complement her clients’ learning styles and development needs.
Prior to setting up her private coaching practice, Claire gained extensive experience in leadership and management roles within large and complex organisations, where coaching became core to her leadership style.
Claire Rostance
ILM Level 5 Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring (Clean Language)
About Claire
As an experienced accredited coach and NLP Practitioner, Claire is passionate about enabling people to be their best and achieve their full potential. Creating a safe space for clients to share their experiences and challenges and enabling them to find the answers. She uses a strengths-based approach empowering clients to create their own personalised strategies.
David Rendle
Level 7 Diploma in Executive Coaching and Mentoring
About David
David is a qualified executive coach, and he had a long career in secondary teaching and subsequently in teacher training and school improvement.
David has coached with Genius Within for three years. He has his own coaching business and has coached teachers and other professionals, and he delivers academic coaching to younger students.
David has had a long experience of supporting neurodivergent students through his teaching and he has enhanced these skills and awareness through his coach training and subsequent CPD. His approach is caring and empathetic and he aims to provide his clients with a balance of support and challenge.
Gemma North
MA in Social Work, PhD in Social Work and MSc in Social Research Methods
About Gemma
Gemma takes a strength based and person-centred approach to coaching. With expertise in neurodiversity and emotional wellbeing Gemma draws upon evidence-informed approaches including trauma informed practice and theories of change.
With a sensitive and creative style, Gemma also bringing humour and lightness to coaching sessions. Clients may leave feeling calmer and more clear thinking about how to progress with their goals.
Gemma has a background in social work and academia. Previous roles include lecturer, researcher, social worker, and substance misuse practitioner.
